Oh My Kingdom for A Roundbale

Well here are the infamous roundbales!! The one is right against the fence and Girl Sonny hogs it all to herself and the other 4 have to battle over the other one LOL.

(Click on pic to enlarge)

Piglette, Cat and the threee 2 year olds have only one between them and seem to cope with the pecking order okay but I couldnt get far enough away to get a better shot, I will try in the morning, although it is raining tonight so dont know how wet it will all be in the morning. You can just see the fillies' ears sticking up on the other side of this one LOL.

They have been having a ball with it and after two days made inroads onto the size of them LOL but we will see what they look like tomorrow.

This is going to be a short post today, not much happening. I am continuing to feel better every day and hope this gloomy weather doesnt hang around too long.

Lori's hoof looks good but I am going to keep her in with the boot on to keep it clean for a few more days so that I know it has closed up and wont get reinfected.

Hope everyone is well ((((((Hugs)))))))

Lori
xx

Spring Has Sprung

The weather has been all over the place the last few weeks it is difficult to remember what we had on which day LOL. These little lambs are down the road from us and they were a bit far away so they arent too crisp and I could only get two in the one shot. There are 7 and they are all black. Too cute!!!

The owner had a big roundbale of hay on this wagon at one stage and they have obviously eaten it all and this ram was laying on the wagon in the sun, when he saw me approaching he got up so I only got this quick shot and he herded his brood away even further.
They also have geese and this guy was perched in the sunshine and when I got too close he got up and screeched indignantly all the way over to his buddies. I am hoping that I will get there again soon with good light and that they will be closer so I can get some cute pics of the lambs.
Lori got an abscess in her hoof. I noticed a few days ago that she was limping a bit but the mud is so sticky and thick that I wasnt sure, and they sometimes pull a muscle when they try to walk and their hooves suction into the mud. Yesterday morning I went and had to force her up to the barn because she could hardly put the foot down and the mud was so bad.

I tried to clean her hoof out and her joint looked swollen but I wasnt too worried because I found nothing in the hoof so decided to hose her leg and see if it improved. By that evening she was grunting in pain each time she tried to step on that hoof and was only using the tip of her hoof. Stan luckily has had experience with trimming hooves and normally shoes his own horses which is far cheaper than getting a farrier in to do them, it can cost $120 for a set of shoes and that was before all these rediculous price hikes.

So he got her foot up and was strong enough to hold her leg when she tried to pull away (it is her right back) and he cleaned the inside of her hoof and the next second liquid came pouring out of it. She had obviously got a cut in the hoof (I wont go into details because most of you wont know what the heck I am talking about LOL) and it had started to go septic. He had a hoof cover (Like a shoe for a horse that has a base and coers the hoof) which you can put poultice into and strap it over the hoof and keep the medicine in place. Luckily she has left it alone, because she normally cant stand anything flapping or strange on her body.

This evening we took it off and it is looking really good, there was hardly any discharge and the swelling has gone right down on the joint and she is putting the foot down normally despite the shoe on it.

So that has been my few days, today it was soooooo windy, the wind always makes me feel uneasy, I hate it. I can take the cold if need be but the wind just makes me uneasy.

I got my load of hay yesterday and it is really a nice quality hay. I am still trying to get the round bales for the field. I would normally never use round bales because it is so hard to measure quantities and have only used them once 5 years ago when we couldnt get hay at all the whole summer and we managed to secure 2 round bales for an absolute fortune and within 2 days I had 16 horses off their feed. So I resorted to Alfalfa cubes which doesnt help a horse which is a browser and needs to chew and keep itself occupied. They were getting the calories but dying of boredom and it was costing a fortune. I have already substituted some of the hay this year with beet pulp but my supplier has run out and wont be getting any until June/July and they have the price listed at $10.99/40lb bag shredded beet pulp. Four weeks ago it was $7.99 a bag. Dont even ask me what alfalfa cubes cost now because 5 years ago they were $8 a bag and I used 2 bags a day on top of their normal grain.

So the battle carries on, we are keeping them fat and sassy just not occupied but health is better than starvation in my book and they are all healthy. Still hoping a few wonderful people would come and buy some of them and give them wonderful homes.

I am glad to say I am feeling a lot better with the longer days and better weather on its way. It is still in the 30s a lot but bearable and we are drying up and warming up slowly.

That's about it for today. I have a few other shots that I have done but will post some more of those tomorrow, I havent had new material to post often over the last few months so I am going to make the most of it.

(((((Hugs)))) to you all. See ya tomorrow

Lori
xx

What a difference a day makes

After the sunshine on Friday and warmer (50s) temps), yesterday we had snow and didnt waver much off of 34 the whole day!!! Today again it is cold will be a bit warmer than yesterday and is very sunny!!!! The mud is drying up but it will just take one rain shower to make it into mud soup again because of all the deep hoof marks which will just fill with water again. Abraham I feel your pain although I do know that only 60 miles south of us which is more or less where you are they have been having far nore rain. We seem to be in the average belt which I am grateful for.

Expecting some hay tomorrow which I will have to unload because I just can't come up with someone to help me do it, Richard will help but lifting large bales of hay is the last thing he should be doing.

I am going to try to get some poop out of the barn today, the horses have been living out because it hasnt been raining and they have managed really well especially since it was about 23 when we woke this morning. My poor babies had frost on their backs LOL, but they didnt seem to mind. Can't wait to see a bit of green out there although with this many horses on that small space I am not holding my breath.

On to my picture for the day. A new group tht I have joined of equine photographers have set themselves an assignment to shoot a picture that they consider abstract art or that has the potential for an abstract picture, so I spend a little while out in the cold yesterday looking for textures, it doesnt necessarily have to be a horsy image. Ths is the rust on part of my poor little pickup truck. I dont know how it keeps going but it does and has been so reliable. I am going to play with it in PS and see if I can make something interesting and appealing out of it and a few other shots I took of other stuff.

Hope you have all been having a great weeked and havent indulged in too many chocolate easter eggs. Stay warm safe and happy.

Lori

xx

The View Today of Our Estate with Horses in Sunny Pastures Next to the Lake

Okay so that is a fib, but it sounds great and is not entirely untrue because we have all three of those LOL. The horses spent the night out last night and we didnt get any rain until this evening and then it wasnt too much so they are staying outside tonight again. I have some round bales of hay coming soon to throw out in the fields so that the horses will have something to occupy them and get a bit more nutrition as hay is becoming scarce and I dont know how we are going to cope this year because all the farmers are planting corn instead of hay because the corn prices have risen so much with the advent of ethanol!!!! Here is a picture of a round baling machine so you can get an idea of how big they are if you dont already know.

I would normally never feed round bales to my horses (The ones we get are very big, weigh about 700lbs where the normal square ones only weigh about 50 or 60 lbs here) because they can have a tendancy to have mould in them which is not good for horses and that is if they have been kept covered and indoors. These havent been so lucky but the horses will stomp all over them pick out what they want to eat and have a reasonable dry place to lay when it starts spreading out. I dont have any pregnant mares either because mouldy hay can be really dangerous for them and their babies.

It is going to be a rollercoaster ride of weather over the next few days, I just dont know how to dress each day, just look outside and make up my mind LOL.

Keeping our heads above water each day, hope you all have a wonderful weekend. ((((Hugs))))

Lori

xx

Another Sunny Day at Last

We have had really lousy weather since my last post and the poor horses have been cooped up for a week now. Today we had sunshine and despite the mud and near freezing temps I just had to put them out. Here are a few shots, I took my life in my hands in that field, I could hardly walk with the mud and the horses thought I was there to play rough with too LOL.

Below Front to back Dosie, Cayenne and Lori and the half black horse is Piglette.

Piglette is so funny one of the first things she will do is go down to where the lake is and lay down in the water, now bear in mind it was at freezing, there was ice on the puddles!!!!! She did it 3 times LOL.
And here is my Beautiful muddy Wiggle Monster. They are all so muddy but happy and their coats are starting to shed so the mud and rolling is helping to loosen and remove the loose itchy hair.
Abraham if our river and lake were a natural permanent waterway I would get the fishing pole out for sure but it isnt, just the run off from all the properties around us, whe are the convergence point LOL.

Thanks all for your visits, great to see you all.

Lori
(((((Hugs))))
xx

The Joy of Sunshine

Well the field may not look pretty and green, in fact it is muddy and gross but the horses had a beautiful day in the sunshine today as can be seen from the pics below. They all took turns in laying down and bathing in the sunshine. I ended up being covered in mud three times today when I had to fed them and am going to have to bring them in to eat tomorrow and put them back out because it is such a soupy muddy mess around the area where they eat.

Taxes has his first outing today since his accident. The mud here was dreadful too but he was bouncing off the walls so we just had to get him out and he ran and played and let off steam. That is his owner Richard in the picture playing with him. After he had been out a few hours and we had stripped and cleaned his stalls we brought him to the other end of the barn and I gave him his first hosing down to get rid of the mud and to clean the wound and he was a star. He is still a very highly strung boy and naughty as heck but i love him to bits.
This is a closeup of Dawn sunbathing she is on the far right in the picture below, I just zoomed in on her because when I looked out the window it looked pretty scary LOL. All these bodies laying on the ground!!

Well I had a really good day today, I think the beautiful 50s weather that we had certainly had something to do with it. There is still a bit of snow laying around in the shadow areas and we always have at least two or three very cold snaps before spring which lasts all of a week or so LOL, but it boosted my spirits a lot.

I have a few fridge magnet calendars left so if anyone wants one please e-mail me your addy and I will pop one in the mail.

Hope you are all having a wonderful week and that this keeps up. ((((Hugs))))

Lori

A Whole Week Gone By

Wow cant believe my last post was Monday!!!! I have posted an update on Taxes' wound progress on my http://loriscritters.blogspot.com/ . It doesnt really loook pretty but it is improving believe it or not LOL.

I got the horses out again today for the first time in days. It has been snow, wind, icey rain, sleet and everything inbetween all week so to have a calm sunny day was nice and they loved it, dirty and all. They rolled in the snow and had a ball. Here is BB being feisty.

I saw these little sparrows on the bush outside the kitchen window and liked how the horses and forest were in the background. Different type of shot for me but I thought it looked cool.

And finally this is Piglette, she is such a naughty mare and has the nicest disposition, I am so glad we rescued her because she does enjoy life and is normally at the forefront of any mischief.

Julie so glad that you liked the fridge magnet calendars. I still have a few left if anyone would like one, just let me know, hey they may be worth something one day LOL.

I am having more good days than bad at the moment and am hoping to get back to some semblance of normality whatever that is. (((((Hugs))))) to you all I think about you all and try to get to read everyones posts but dont always get to comment. STay warm

Lori

xx

Rainy Days and Mondays

It was 55F when we woke up this morning but very windy and the mud in the field was dreadful so I brought all the horses in to feed them. By the time I had achieved that I had more mud on me than the horses had on them, and then it started raining and has been on and off all day. Yukky day. The temps are going to be dropping to around freezing again over the next few days, like riding a rollercoaster!

The pic I am posting today was taken when Taxes was 5 months old after I had weaned him and he was still manageable, sort of LOL, Brat. I love this horse, his conformation and movement are beautiful but then I am barn blind! The only thing he is missing is the white spot to get him into the regular paint horse registry, in fact he couldnt have much less white if he had tried as he only has a sock on his one back leg and a thin blaze and that is it. Paint Horses are meant to have lots of chrome (that is what the call the white spots) and it has to be in certain areas to qualify.

His wound is looking okay, he is messing with it I think (licking at it) but it is looking clean and some of the flap of skin is coming away right now so hopefully this will get it moving forward and closing the gaping hole in his chest.

Well other than half of my field being under water (the fences work though I zapped myself on one today!!!!!!) and the rest being a muddy mush, it is getting colder and has been dull all day, that is about it for the day.

Hope you all had a great Monday. ((((Hugs)))) and thanks for your visits.

Lori

xx

Sunday - Feels like Spring

I walked into the kitchen this morning and this is the sight that greeted me!! I grabbed my camera and only got two shots off, one he turned his head and the other was this one. This is"Wild Cat" one of my first barn kitties and he is about 6 now. You can see the horses outside behind him, he was wanting to come in.

Abraham made sooooo jealous on his blog the other day when he shot an awesome picture of a cardinal. These are very ellusive birds and I have been trying forever to get a good shot of one, this is about the best I have come up with yesterday morning when I put some seed out for the birds.

Considering a week ago we were still experiencing lows of -1F today is a heatwave. Our high for the day has been 56 with rain expected tonight, but scattered. The ground is draining quickly because the clay is still frozen enough to let it run away rather than soak in as there is still snow on the ground.

Stan very kindly came over and fixed my three electric fences for me this afternoon. It is amazing when you have the right tools and the know how, how easy it looks LOL. I do still have a short in the one fence so have to do a line check but it is probably just a broken insulator. I went shopping last night with Stan's wife Valerie, wow sure is nice when the shops are quiet and I never normally go out at night so I enjoyed the change and the female company. I didnt buy too much either LOL, just some boring groceries.

Taxes is coming along, still looks aweful but he is letting us wash it which is a good thing. I am going to try to debreed the wound tonight by rubbing it lightly. I will just have to see how he tolerates it and play it from there.

Well that is about it for today, I am going to go and try to catch up on some of my blogging buddies who I have been neglecting lately.

Hope everyone had a great weekend. ((((Hugs))))

Lori
xx